Posts that don't belong anywhere else

RIP Maurice.

A "monster sunspot" more than 60,000 miles wide could send some powerful solar flares toward Earth on Wednesday, NASA says. The sunspot -- actually a group of four spots, each larger than Earth, and smaller spots -- emerged over the weekend and was spotted by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory and amateur astronomers, Spaceweather.com reported (via Space.com). It tossed off a moderately strong M-class flare today, and is expected to follow up with even stronger flares, possibly even X class. Read on: To infinity and beyond! I love astronomy so I find this stuff super fascinating. I had to look up what an X Flare was, but here it is. (From here Solar flares are classi…

Hawaiian astronomers recently observed an event so rare it only ever happens about every 10,000 years, the swallowing of a star by a Black Hole 2.7 billion light years away. The Black Hole is estimated to be around 3 million times the mass of our sun and roughly as large as the Super Massive Black Hole in the center of our own Milky Way. Article <<<<

Fashion food To make it happen, farmers grew the melons in glass boxes and the fruit then naturally assumed the same shape. Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan. But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities. Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon.

REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE WINE A California Voter Initiative - 2012 In Short - This California Voter Initiative for 2012 intends to: Repeal prohibition of marijuana for adults Strictly regulates marijuana, just like the wine industry Allows hemp agriculture and products Does not change laws regarding medical marijuana impairment workplace vehicle operation use by minors under 21 years old Provides specific personal possession exemptions Requires dismissal of pending court cases Defense against all related litigation Prevents California from supporting federal enforcements that conflict with this law and requires the State to petition the Feds to remove marijuana from Sched…

So its currently four in the morning here, and I cant sleep. I know the forums have been very slow for a while now but man i was hoping atleast one person other than face book and google would be up this early. anyways, hi guys

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/11/one-deep-breath-pushing-the-limits-of-freediving/?hpt=hp_c1 I was reading a story/picture gallery about this freediving competition. Looks pretty intense. One dude even passed out underwater and started spitting up blood and stuff. Well I looked into freediving a bit more and records for holding your breath. Some Brazilian guy, Ricardo Bahia, holds the guinness record at 20 minutes 21 seconds underwater. WHAT THE HELL. I can hold my breath for like 2-3 minutes, tops.

Since 1997, researchers have been able to quantum teleport photons with a major record being set by researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai. In 2010, that team successfully teleported a photon over 16km. Now that same team has released new findings, in which they claim to have teleported photons nearly 100km, or over 60 miles. Now, quantum teleportation isn’t quite the same thing as the teleportation in Star Trek. When researchers teleport a photon, they aren’t teleporting the actual photon, but rather the information contained in it through quantum entanglement. In essence, the second photon at the end of the teleport becomes the fir…

Meet Susanne Eman. The self described "I'm your average gal next door who just happens to have a body to match the size of her personality." (i.e a beached whale) Why is she fun and unique? Well Susanne is 800 lbs and she's about to get married, and she's having a dress custom made to fit her form. Bonus, she wants to be the fattest woman in the world, over 1600 lbs. "I'm looking forward to pushing the limits and seeing just how fat I can get. It's hard to put into words what it feels like." "But preparing for the big day meant going to a bridal shop to pick the right dress -- one that wouldn't show food stains. Making the dress will be a monumental task for seamstress J…

German police officers fired a total of 85 bullets in 2011, 49 of which were warning shots, the German publication Der Spiegel reported. Officers fired 36 times at people, killing six and injuring 15. This is a slight decline from 2010, when seven people were killed and 17 injured. Ninety-six shots were fired in 2010. Meanwhile, in the United States, The Atlantic reported that in April, 84 shots were fired at one murder suspect in Harlem, and another 90 at an unarmed man in Los Angeles. "Our police officers are no thugs in uniform," Lorenz Caffier, interior minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said at a press conference Tuesday. "It is gratifying that the use of firearms b…

Please don't get me wrong, Stan Lee has had some great ideas, but the amount of credit that is given to him in regards to what characters he's created makes me pretty angry. Let's take a look at this article on CNN recently about the success of the new Avengers movie. Stan Lee revels in success of 'Avengers' Some quotes: "...long before the film's astronomical success, the 3-D glasses, the action figures and the sponsorship deals, there was the the imagination of one man -- Stan Lee" " Years ago, I was writing these characters and I thought it would fun to put them together in a team. And I called it "The Avengers." Ugh..... All I have to say is people should give more c…

"As the search for cheap, safe and non-carbon emitting sources of energy continues, a band of scientists say the answer may be nuclear reactors fueled by thorium. Others caution that thorium reactors pose waste and proliferation risks. Ira Flatow and guests discuss the pros and cons of thorium reactors." NPR Is Thorium A Magic Bullet For Our Energy Problems?

Uhhhhh.... http://www.yankeecandle.com/yankee-candles/man-candles Enjoy scents such as "Riding Mower", "2x4", "First Down" and the aptly named "Man Town". Seriously Yankee Candle? "Man Town"? I think about the only one of these that MAY smell "good" if used, sparingly, during winter would be the Riding Mower one.

In the city of Detroit, doing the right thing might not always be the best idea — especially if you want to keep your job: just ask a former groundskeeper for the Wayne County Department of Public Services. John Chevilott was only two years of shy of retirement when he lost the government position he held for 23 years earlier this month. After he spotted a loaded handgun while mowing the lawn of a neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, Chevilott carefully picked up the firearm and put it aside to hand over to law enforcement. When he visited a local police station that afternoon, he was applauded for his action. “They said I did the right thing getting it off the street,” Mr.…

Let's meet Desmond Hatchett. Desmond, who is 33 and lives in Knoxville, can't pay his monthly child support payments. He claims to make minimum wage, and the government already takes half of his weekly paychecks to distribute to...... 11 DIFFERENT WOMEN, with whom Desmond has fathered THIRTY children (ranging in age from toddlers to the age of 14) “I had four kids in the same year," he said. "Twice.” God, what a frigging scumbag. Same for the women who keep sleeping with him.

...For robots. Watch the slow-mo of it running after it gets up to speed. It looks just like a four legged critter.

Now there's a mouthful. Built around 100-150 B.C., it was discovered off the Greek Island of Antikythera on an ancient shipwreck found by sponge divers at the dawn of the 20th century. Only recently have we had the technology to penetrate through the thick, rocky encrustation of coral and ocean bicarbonate deposited over the millennia without damaging it. Using 21st-century technology to peer beneath the surface of the encrusted gearwheels, stunned scientists say the so-called Antikythera Mechanism could predict the ballet of the Sun and Moon over decades and calculate a lunar anomaly that would bedevil Isaac Newton himself. -Cosmos Magazine 31 different moving gears wit…

I promised my sister I'd do my best at shooting some traffic to her new website and Twitter. So, if you're into wild 8 day vacations that involve wine, Segways, boats, Napa, Sonoma and Heraldsburg... check her out. http://www.vineyard-vacations.com/index.php/itinerary Follow her on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/#!/VineyardVac Thanks, guys. xoxo

The first annual solar eclipse to pass through the United States in 18 years is on it's way. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/20/11763251-eclipse-day-get-set-for-ring-of-fire?lite

Anyone following MMA, or the UFC in particular knows who Chael Sonnen is. He beat the snot out of the current middleweight champ for almost a full five rounds, only to be caught in a triangle choke in the last seconds of the final round. He's been creatively calling for a rematch for a long time and finally got it. The rematch is June 7th. This interview is just par for the course for Sonnen. He absolutely cracks me up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAH2NqfEIqA

Seems like it'd be great for a party, and no brain splattering involved! Would you play?

http://www.mediafire.com/?hg732b2d8qmgh1g You'll have to download this short segment, but it's well worth it. I really wish he'd run for president one day.

I don't even know what to say about this one, so here's the short form. This dude (well, ex-dude now), Mao Sugiyama, is apparently an illustrator who defines "itself" as Asexual. He went on Twitter and basically threw out the offer that he would cook and serve his own dangly bits for the low low price of ¥100,000 (about $1,250 dollars ish) Creepy? Five people actually took the offer up, each paying around $250 to savor the scrotastic taste. Police were contacted, and they didn't care (no cannibalism laws in Japan! lol) Reportedly his junk functioned properly prior to the event and they "were served with Italian parsley and garnished with button mushrooms." You may not…